All Saints, Madeley, Staffordshire

Feature Sets (2)

Description

Madeley is in NW Staffordshire, just over a mile from the Shropshire
border and four miles E of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The parish was formerly an
extensive one, occupying the fertile, hilly ground as far W as the county
boundary. It consisted of the three villages of Great, Middle and Little
Madeley and Onneley, to the W. All of these lie along the A525 road from
Whitchurch to Newcastle. Madeley was apparently always the largest settlement.
The church is alongside the main road, with the Old Hall (now a 17thc.
building) immediately to the N. Old Madeley manor is a mile to the S, but
ruinous, and the new manor is in Little Madeley to the NE. Red and blue clay is
still extracted for brick manufacture, and coal was formerly mined at Leycett
colliery (closed 1957) and Silverdale (closed 1998). All Saints is a red
sandstone church with a nave with aisles, a S porch
and transepts, a chancel with a N chapel and a W tower.
The oldest part of the church is the 12thc. N arcade.
The S arcade and clerestorey
are ofc.1300, and both aisles have been widened; the N in the 14thc.
and the S in the 15thc., to judge from the windows. The nave aisles are of four
bays and extend partway alongside the tower to the W.
The S porch is 15thc. Its original entrance has been
blocked, and the modern entrance to the church is through a doorway cut into
the E wall of the porch, allowing the insertion of
lavatories at the S end. The N transept was added in the 14thc., and a lancet
at the W end of the N arcade wall (originally the outer
wall) indicates that there was no transept here before that. The S transept is
15thc., as is the N chancel chapel (now a
vestry). The chancel itself
was completely rebuilt in 1872 as part of a restoration by Charles Lynam of
Stoke-on-Trent. Views of the church before this restoration are in the William
Salt library. The tower is 15thc. with a 19thc. battlemented parapet with
finials. Romanesque sculpture is found in the N nave
arcade.

History

Robert of Stafford held one hide in Madeley in 1086, and Wulfgeat from
him. Before the Conquest it was held by Swein. The holding also included
woodland 1½ leagues long and a league broad. Deer parks at Heighley (to
the N) and Madeley are mentioned in the 13thc. In 1272 Nicholas de Stafford was
Lord of the Manor of Madeley. In 1293, ironmaking was recorded here using local
ore and wood and charcoal from Madeley Great Park. Charters for a Tuesday
market and annual fairs on St George's day and St Leonard's day were granted to
Ralph de Stafford by Edward III in 1341. The manor remained in the Stafford
family (later Dukes of Buckingham) until the fall of Buckingham in
1484.

Benefice of Betley and Madeley.

Features

Interior Features

Arcades

Nave

N arcade

Four bays, pointed. The arcade is carried
on octagonal piers with a semi-octagonal
respond at the E end and the arch dying into the wall
at the W. The capitals are all plain multi-scallops with roll
neckings. The E
respondcapital is odd in having three scallops per
face (the others have four) and in having an impost
cut from the same block as the capital. Imposts are
quirked hollow chamfered. The arches are later,
c.1300, with two chamfered
orders to either face. There are double chamfered
labels on the S face only,
with round bosslabel stops
above the three piers as follows:

Comments/Opinions

The arcade probably dates fromc.1160-70
as suggested by the octagonal pier and despite the
simplicity of the scallop forms. Pevsner notes that octagonal multi-scalloped
capitals are a rarity in Staffordshire arcades; the
present author has found no other
examples.